The Best Touchscreen Winter Gloves

Over the past five winters, we’ve tested 47 pairs of touchscreen gloves while moving half a ton of stumps, climbing on ice, and just walking and biking around town. For the second year in a row, Moshi’s Digits are our favorite touchscreen gloves for most people, offering the right combination of warmth, dexterity, and grip. They aren’t the absolute warmest touchscreen gloves you can buy, but they’re warmer than anything that’s better for using on touchscreens, and better for using on touchscreens than anything that’s warmer.

Last Updated:
Eight months ago

U|R Powered’s Derek (men’s) is out of stock until the end of February. If you want that style of glove in the meantime, the Hudson is similar. Though we haven’t tested this model yet, it’s part of the same Leather & Tech Stretch family, meaning it has a leather top and stretchy palm.

Nine months ago:
After testing 17 more pairs of touchscreen gloves, the Moshi Digits are still our pick for most people. No other gloves offer a similar combination of warmth, touchscreen accuracy, and comfort. The 180s Sustain Insulated Gloves are our new pick for gloves for colder environments and winter sports; we also have new picks from U|R Powered for everyday leather gloves, and a premium pair of leather gloves for those interested in something more fashionable. (Moshi is currently transitioning to the 2017 Digits we cover in the guide, so most retailers are out of stock. The company says the new Digits should be available soon.)

Two years ago:
After two months of testing the latest touchscreen gloves, we have a new pick: Moshi’s Digits. They kept our hands warm in a both a 42°F walk-in cooler and, more impressive, a Buffalo, New York winter. We were able to thumb-type without making any mistakes, and the gloves look nice too.

Two years ago:
We've continued to test the newest version of Glider Gloves’ Winter Style Touchscreen Gloves and have experienced a noticeable loss in conductivity and no longer think they will be our top pick. We're going to put this guide on Wait status while we finish up our tests, and will have a new pick soon.

Two years ago:
We’re still waiting on winter weather to do our full array of tests, but after our initial examination, we found the updated version of our previous favorite Glider Gloves’ Winter Style Touchscreen Gloves are in the lead to be the best this year. We’ve loved the warmth and touchscreen responsiveness in the past. This year, the gloves are longer, meaning they keep more of the wrist warm, and the conductive yarn is supposedly improved. We’ll continue testing as winter hits Buffalo, NY, and have a full update in the next few months.

Three years ago:
After a month of testing the newest touchscreen gloves, we’re still recommending the Glider Gloves Winter for the third year running. While they’re not the warmest we tested, we still felt plenty warm waiting in the cold for 30 minutes. We've also used them while ice climbing and moving about a thousand pounds of tree stumps without issue.

Three years ago:
After a month of testing the newest touchscreen gloves from Glove.ly, The North Face, and others against our reigning pick, we're keeping the Glider Gloves Winter as our main pick for most people. The all-over touch compatibility of the knit design, close fit, decent warmth, and grippy textured palms make it a great all-around-use glove. They've also improved the durability this winter, which we can confirm after using them to go ice climbing, experiencing countless errant Velcro encounters, and moving about a thousand pounds worth of stumps. Unfortunately, the cuffs are still shorter than we'd like them to be and they could be warmer, but they're the best overall gloves for most people. We will be updating this guide in the coming month with more alternate recommendations for those who need something warmer or wind/water resistant, so stay tuned if that's you. But for most people, Glider Gloves are your best bet for the third year running.

Three years ago:
We’re currently researching new touchscreen winter gloves, and we plan to do a larger update when the weather is cold enough to test them. In the meantime, the Glider Gloves Winter is still our favorite pair, and we continue to stand by all the other picks in this guide.

Four years ago:
We spent 20 hours researching and tested nine different gloves before choosing the Glider Gloves Winter as our new top pick, taking over from the Glider Gloves Urban.

Five years ago:
I had a pair of SLIDE'EM Winter Sport Pro gloves show up at my front door today. They can't beat the GliderGloves.

The difficulty in finding a good pair of touchscreen gloves is that you want them to be warm—what’s the point of gloves if they don’t keep your hands cozy?—but the thicker the glove, the more difficult it is to use with a touchscreen. And if you’re tempted to take the gloves off because they’re too bulky to text with accurately, their touchscreen capabilities really don’t matter. Moshi’s Digits are double-layered knit gloves that will keep you reasonably warm in cold weather, but their fit is snug enough to conform to a range of finger sizes and to allow reliably accurate screen taps. Furthermore, they feature a raised pattern of dots and lines on the palms and fingers that offer a superior grip. In fact, these gloves are dexterous and grippy enough that in our testing we felt comfortable using our phones one-handed.

These polyester ski gloves are better for colder climates (below 20 ˚F) and winter sports. They’re not as accurate on touchscreens, but they still work well, especially considering how well they perform as heavy-duty winter gloves.

If the Digits are sold out, if you live in a climate where the temperature or wind chill consistently stays below 20 ˚F, or if you take part in winter sports, consider grabbing a pair of the 180s Sustain Insulated Gloves (available in both men’s and women’s versions). These polyester gloves are warmer than any other touchscreen glove we’ve tested. While the finger and palm touchscreen technology works very well considering the warmth of the gloves, the insulation makes the fingers a bit bulkier, so these gloves are not the best for detailed tasks—they’re better for, say, checking a bus schedule than typing emails.

Consider these if you tend to have hot hands or you live in a climate that rarely gets below 40 ˚F. They’re not nearly as warm as our top pick, but they work very well with touchscreens.

On the other hand, if you live in a warmer climate where temperatures rarely drop below 40 ˚F, or if you’re looking for a touchscreen-compatible glove liner, you could get away with the cheaper, less-insulated Glider Gloves Urban Style Touchscreen Gloves. These are basically the same as one of our older picks, the Glider Gloves Winter Style, but they lack a fleece lining. That means they fit a bit more loosely if you have shorter fingers, and they can stretch a little better, so consider sizing down if you’re not sure which size to get. The Urban gloves are also a better option if, for instance, you work in a cold office and need something thin for all-day use.

Finally, if you’re willing to pay more for a more stylish glove, we recommend U|R Powered’s Derek Leather & Tech Stretch Gloves (for men) and Valori Leather & Tech Stretch Gloves (for women). They look like normal leather gloves at first, but they’re actually made of a warm, spandex-like material with leather stitched onto the back. This design gives them the warmth and the tight fit of a technical glove but the exterior appearance of a nicer leather glove. They also feature traction lines on the palm to keep you from dropping your phone. If you examine them closely, the Derek and Valori styles aren’t as fancy looking as all-leather gloves, but chances are, most people won’t notice the difference unless you point it out to them.

If you insist on all-leather gloves that work with touchscreens, these are a good option.

We didn’t test a huge number of premium, all-leather gloves, but of those we did evaluate, the Kent Wang Deerskin Gloves were our favorites. The classic, calf-leather design fits well, while the cashmere lining provides some extra warmth, and they work well with touchscreens. But, as is to be expected with this kind of glove, they’re expensive.

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Table of contents

Who should buy these

Touchscreen gloves are for anyone who uses a smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch and lives (or regularly visits) somewhere that gets cold. At some point or another, you’ll be out in the cold and need to respond to a text you just received, or to use your device for some other reason, and you won’t want to strip down to do it. Touchscreen gloves are also handy for drivers of cars with touchscreen panels.

If you already have a pair of subpar touchscreen gloves, you may be familiar with the frustration of attempting to edit an incoherent text message that you just Swyped with fingers the size of fish sticks. Or maybe you have a thin pair that’s accurate but warm enough only when the temperature isn’t especially cold. If you’re in either category, you should consider an upgrade.

However, you should not buy these gloves expecting them to last a lifetime. A pair of good touchscreen gloves will last you a full winter or two if you’re lucky, but the conductive material that enables touchscreen compatibility will wear down over time. Regular washing will help clear grease, dirt, and grime off the conductive threads, but you can go only so long until the threads start degrading. Knit gloves are also prone to snagging on the Velcro often found on winter wear. (We haven’t used any leather models long enough to determine how their touchscreen functionality holds up over time. We’ll be monitoring those picks to see how they last.)

You also shouldn’t expect any touchscreen gloves to keep your hands toasty and allow you to type as if your hands were bare. With these kinds of gloves, you accept a trade-off between warmth and accuracy. Heavy-duty gloves aren’t great for typing, while the thinnest gloves won’t keep your hands much warmer than if you were wearing no gloves at all. So we focused mostly on the middle ground: gloves that are warm enough to get you through a commute, if not what you’d want to use in a snowball fight, while also letting you type pretty well. We also looked for alternate designs for different use cases: colder weather, warmer climates, and leather style.

How these gloves work

For a capacitive touchscreen—the technology used in most touch-capable phones, tablets, and computers today—to register that you’re asking it to do something, you have to poke it with something that conducts electricity, such as a finger or a stylus designed for the purpose.

Most ordinary gloves and mittens insulate against the conductivity of your body. So if you want to use a touchscreen while wearing gloves, the solution—apart from taking the gloves off—is to wear gloves that are conductive. Glove manufacturers use one of three ways to achieve this conductivity.

The first method, which was common among early attempts at touchscreen gloves, involves sewing patches of conductive material into the fingertips. Some manufacturers still do this, but gloves made using this method wear out quickly.

The second method is to weave conductive thread (typically silver or copper; the two have about the same performance and durability) into the fabric, either just in the fingertips or throughout the glove. The thread conducts electricity from a finger to the tip of the glove covering that finger.

The third method, used in leather gloves, is to imbue the leather with nano-particles of silver, an approach that produces full-hand conductivity. This technology is more forgiving of a loose fit than knit gloves with conductive thread, because the leather can conduct electricity from any part of your hand to any fingertip.

(You can make your existing gloves touchscreen capable by sewing special thread into them or treating them with special drops, but judging from the cost and reviews of those items, we recommend simply buying a proven pair.)

How we picked and tested

We interviewed Matthew Meyer, founder of TouchscreenGloveReviews.com, who has been following the field since 2008 and has reviewed just about every glove out there. He looks for three things in every touchscreen glove: grip, 10-finger compatibility, and ease of use (essentially, fit and conductivity). “At this point, if the gloves aren’t fully touchscreen compatible with all five fingers being functional, they aren’t worth it,” Meyer wrote in an email. “I always look for fully integrated touchscreen compatible material.”

Given the limited range of professional reviews out there, our goal was to sample the top contenders in a field that has expanded considerably since our first look at the category. Whereas a few years ago a few companies offered one or two different touchscreen gloves, these days dozens of companies offer full lines of conductive handwear. Gloves can no longer compete on novelty—performance is what sets our picks apart.

In our most recent testing, in late 2016, we researched dozens of pairs and narrowed our pool down to 17 gloves that met our prerequisites. We began with companies that had great reputations in handwear, and we focused primarily on gloves that had received good reviews.

Over the past several years, we’ve spent more than 30 hours researching hundreds of gloves. We’ve conducted testing across cold winters in Oregon and in Buffalo, New York. Some years we’ve tested during hikes and ski trips, and other times we’ve used gloves while walking around downtown in the evenings and during daily dog walks. For this most recent update, we’ve been using the gloves since November 2016, including testing while shoveling, brushing snow and ice off a car, driving, and just generally getting around the city.

In 2015, we tested each pair of gloves while standing in a temperature-controlled walk-in cooler at Resurgence Brewing Company in Buffalo, New York, for 15 minutes at a time. While the 42 °F cooler was actually warmer than the outdoor temperature at the time, it gave us a consistent level for our tests. With each glove, we thumb-typed the first verse of Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas” (which we picked before 2016’s big East Coast storm!) on an iPhone 6s Plus with autocorrect turned on. We quickly noticed which gloves allowed for accuracy and which did not. For the remaining time, we used the phone as we normally would, checking Twitter, sending texts, posting on Slack, and playing games. We considered performing this test again for 2016, but our results over time have shown that the cold doesn’t affect touchscreen compatibility. If gloves work, they work, and if they don’t, they don’t. Instead, we repeated the same touchscreen tests in a more temperate office environment, and sat down with a panel of Wirecutter writers to discuss aesthetics and fit. We evaluated our warmth in the real-world tests mentioned above.

In general, we looked for gloves that were either gender-neutral or had versions for men and women—we considered gloves designed for only one gender, but they really had to shine to earn a general recommendation (for example, our picks for leather gloves). Fashion was a legitimate concern, but we were more concerned about functionality.

We also tested durability, seeing how easily each glove snagged—if at all—by running strips of Velcro across one glove from each pair 10 times. We performed this step mainly to get an idea of how each set of gloves would hold up to a common winter hazard: Velcro on assorted winter garments. We’ll continue to use our picks to see if they sustain any damage from real-world, long-term use.

In the end, we found that gloves that were stretchier tended to produce a tighter fit, which made them much more pleasant to use with touchscreens. This means that, in general, knit and spandex materials have a clear advantage over softshell or fleece ones. If warmth is more important to you, however, fleece gets the edge. We have picks for a variety of priorities.

Our pick

The grips on the palms of the Moshi Digits help to keep your phone from slipping. (The current version adds grippy dots to the palm.) Photo: Kevin Purdy

First and foremost these are good winter gloves, but they also allow you to use your phone without hindering the touchscreen experience.

Moshi’s Digits are the touchscreen gloves we recommend for most people. First and foremost, they’re very good knit winter gloves, as they kept our hands pretty warm in even sub-freezing weather. On top of that, we found ourselves able to thumb-type with little issue; with autocorrect turned on, we had zero typos in our typing tests. The Digits are warmer than anything that’s better for using on touchscreens, and better for using on touchscreens than anything that’s warmer. A rubberized palm helps to keep your phone from slipping out of your hand. For 2017, Moshi added a pattern of dots to the inside of the palm for an even better grip. We haven’t yet tried these specific gloves, but expect the same overall performance. The light gray (in small/medium size) and dark gray (in large) colors won’t clash with most outfits.

The newest Digits have small, almost invisible grippy dots along their palm. Photo: Nick Guy

The Digits are warmer than anything that’s better for using on touchscreens, and better for using on touchscreens than anything that’s warmer.

The typing experience with the Digits is excellent. They offer good dexterity, making for easy typing, and a nice gripping compound on the palms and fingers help avoid accidental drops. Furthermore, they have no seams in the fingertips, which makes typing more predictable and reliable than with most other knit gloves. All of the fingers on both gloves have conductive fiber sewn in, so you can type text messages with your thumbs or poke with your pinky. We were very impressed with the responsiveness in our testing: Despite the gloves’ slightly bulky feel, we found typing easy, even with our thumbs.

We were able to thumb-type with ease while wearing the Digits. Photo: Kevin Purdy

Above all else, the snug fit throughout the hand and fingers (including at the tips) and a lack of seams on the fingertips gave the Digits the edge in accuracy and handling over competitors. The close fit makes predictably manipulating touchscreens of all varieties easy. We also found that the thicker insulation helps reduce some of the slack from a loose fit that would otherwise lead to misplaced taps and swipes. The single-layer gloves we tested, including those from Glove.ly, Agloves, and Glider Gloves, fit a bit tighter and offered more dexterity, but ultimately resulted in less predictability during typing because they were a bit long in the fingertips for two testers (including me) despite being the right size according to each company’s size charts.

The Digits aren’t the warmest gloves you can wear, but they are a lot warmer than single-layer models—it’s like upgrading from a thin sweater to a fleece jacket. During my testing in below-freezing temperatures, the level of insulation was perfect when I kept warm with high-energy activities such as snow shoveling, but it didn’t get so hot that I started sweating. When I stopped to take a picture, to send a quick text, or to eat a snack, by the time my fingers began to grow cold I was ready to get moving again. Walking the dog didn’t generate much heat, but the Digits were plenty warm for 15 minutes at a stretch.

One drawback to the Digits is that the knit construction can catch on Velcro pretty easily. In our testing the snagging didn’t tear the glove or do any other real damage, but it did lead to general “fuzziness.”

Going into a second season of use, a test pair of the Digits is maintaining all of its strengths. They’re still as warm as ever, and the touchscreen sensitivity hasn’t declined. They do have some frizzy bits of fabric, as we’d expect from knit gloves, but overall they remain as solid as ever.

A warmer runner-up

These polyester ski gloves are better for colder climates (below 20 ˚F) and winter sports. They’re not as accurate on touchscreens, but they still work well, especially considering how well they perform as heavy-duty winter gloves.

If our main pick sells out, or if you live in a colder climate and you use your phone, tablet, or smartwatch for only simple tasks, consider the 180s Sustain Insulated Gloves (available in both men’s and women’s versions), which have the warmest touchscreen glove design we’ve tested that still allows for decent dexterity. Instead of sporting simple and imprecise sewn-on touch panels, these gloves offer full touchscreen compatibility through each fingertip and the palm. They also fit well and are extremely warm, making them a great pick for winter sports and generally cold environments.

The Sustain gloves have a polyester softshell design with a faux leather palm, available only in black. They are easy to slip into, and you’ll feel just how warm they are from the first time you put them on. The soft lining is quite comfortable. The Sustains are long, running well past the wrist, where there’s elastic that helps keep heat in and snow out. Below that, at the cuff, a cinch cord provides further protection from the elements.

As far as warmth goes, we have yet to come across a warmer touchscreen glove. These are perfect for any wintery environment. The biggest downside is their touchscreen performance. Their bulk makes it harder to be as precise as you can be with our top pick: You can type out a text or email, but expect it to take longer than with the Digits. (For taking pictures or opening apps, on the other hand, you’ll have few problems.) No other glove that’s this warm offers better performance, so we’re willing to accept this downside.

Consider these if you tend to have hot hands or you live in a climate that rarely gets below 40 ˚F. They’re not nearly as warm as our top pick, but they work very well with touchscreens.

The Glider Gloves Urban Style Touchscreen Gloves were our original pick, several years ago, for the best touchscreen gloves, and we still like them. Their conductivity is great, and because they’re thin, they’re also very accurate if you get a good fit (we recommend sizing down if your fingers are shorter than average).

The reason they’re no longer the top pick is that warmer designs with a comparable level of touch accuracy are available: The Urban Style gloves have a single-layer knit style, so they’re less resistant to wind; they stop being warm enough somewhere in the high 30s. That said, the Urban Style gloves are still a great buy if you live in a more-temperate area or don’t venture out into the cold often or for long. Their lack of insulation also makes them a good choice for people who want to wear gloves all day—for example, in a cold office—but need normal dexterity.

U|R Powered’s Leather & Tech Stretch Gloves offer a great compromise between the classic look of a leather glove and the snug fit required for effective touchscreen interaction. They achieve this feat by combining a sheepskin-leather back with a stretchier spandex-like material on the palm and the front of the fingers. Among the available designs, we like the men’s Derek and women’s Valori styles.

The problem with most leather touchscreen gloves is that leather can’t stretch like a knit fabric can. This limitation hinders your ability to get the snug, precise fit necessary for accurate touchscreen typing. The U|R gloves solve the problem by combining a stylish leather back with a stretchy, spandex-like surface for the palm and the front of the fingers. The result is a design that looks like a normal pair of leather gloves from the outside, but you retain all the touchscreen benefits of stretchy, snug-fitting fabric. A faux-fur lining adds an extra layer of warmth that won’t shed like a cashmere liner.

… thanks to a fleecy lining and a spandex-like palm, the Derek (shown here on the right) gave us a tighter fit and more-accurate touchscreen control. In contrast, the all-leather Kent Wang design (left) had a bit of slack in the tips and wasn’t as warm. Photo: Kevin Purdy

U|R Powered provides the touchscreen compatibility technology for many other gloves. U|R Powered’s Aiden and Sasha gloves were our previous favorites in this category, and they worked well all last winter. We’ll continue to test these new picks for long-term durability.

In addition to looking good, the Leather & Tech Stretch Gloves also feature subtle, diagonal pinstripes of grippy material on the palm, thumb, and index and middle fingers. As a result, you can use the gloves to type or text one-handed without worrying about dropping your phone. While these lines aren’t quite as grippy as the more pronounced rubber pattern on the Moshi Digits, the continuous stripes do feel a bit more secure than the discrete repeating-dot pattern used on many less expensive gloves.

The U|R’s striped grip isn’t quite as effective as the pattern on the Moshi Digits, but it’s still pretty good. Photo: Michael Zhao

Both the Derek and the Valori models represent a strong value considering their good looks, touchscreen compatibility, and relatively low price. All-leather gloves, such as those from Glove.ly, can easily cost $100 or more and don’t do as great a job while you’re using your phone. And although the U|R Powered design isn’t fully leather, you won’t notice that unless you’re looking closely, and the quality of the leather is still comparable to that of more-expensive, all-leather models. Overall, we think the U|R Powered gloves are a win-win-win for style, function, and value.

Premium leather

If you insist on all-leather gloves that work with touchscreens, these are a good option.

If you insist on an all-leather glove, chances are you’re concerned enough with fashion that you know what you want already, so we didn’t dive as deeply into this category as the others. We did find a pair we like, though: The Kent Wang Deerskin gloves are a good premium option for those who want the look and feel of all-leather while maintaining touchscreen compatibility.

The Deerskin gloves are made of calf leather and deerskin and are classically designed—there’s no way to tell them apart from a pair of gloves that aren’t touchscreen compatible, as they don’t look “techy.” We found them to fit well, with a little more give than other leather gloves that can be too constricting. The cashmere lining is soft, although one of our panelists found it to be itchy. All five fingers are touchscreen compatible and worked well in each of our tasks.

The competition

We tested a lot of gloves. Many of them were pretty good, but none of them were as good as our top pick. Photo: Michael Zhao

Our previous overall top pick was the Glider Gloves Winter Style Touchscreen Gloves. They offered the best combination of warmth, touchscreen sensitivity, and grip at the time. For the 2015–2016 season, Glider updated them with a longer cuff and an improved conductive mix. However, readers have complained to us that the touchscreen sensitivity rapidly diminishes, and this season our own experiences backed up those claims: The pair we tested worked great initially, but after a few months the left glove lost the capability to work with our phones. It’s simply not acceptable for touchscreen gloves to stop working within a single season. We hope that Glider Gloves can solve this issue, but until then, we can’t recommend the Winter Style gloves.

The North Face’s ThermoBall Etip gloves (men, women) were a previous pick for a warmer upgrade. They’ve become harder to find over the past year, especially the men’s version, but they’re still a good pick if you can find them. They’re not as warm as the 180s Sustain gloves, but they’re a bit more agile, allowing for finer touchscreen control.

J.Crew’s Wool smartphone gloves (now discontinued) are nice and warm and fit well. They’re only conductive on a relatively small leather pad, though, meaning you can’t activate a touchscreen with the tip of your finger. The leather is also slippery, which isn’t great when you’re holding an expensive smartphone.

U|R Powered Madison gloves look and feel nice. The design is clearly gender-specific, though, without any definite benefits over the Moshi Digits, preventing them from being a top pick in our overall category. We feel the same way about the company’s Rei, Raylee, and Wyatt gloves. They’re good choices if you like the look, but they don’t have the widest appeal. The Kevlyns were our least favorite U|R Powered gloves this year, with too-long fingers even on our longest-fingered panelist.

The Hail glove from Degrees by 180s is available in both men’s and women’s versions (now discontinued). Unfortunately they’re only conductive on small pads at the top of the fingers, and have a poor fit through the thumb.

The Degrees by 180s Women’s Sherpa Gloves (now discontinued) are a less-expensive alternative to the Sustain gloves, but the suede-like outer material doesn’t feel like it’d keep water out as well as the mostly polyester Sustain gloves.

We tested three styles from Underhanded: Super, Duo, and Cityscape. The conductive surface on all three is limited to the flat end of your finger, but you can’t poke with the tip. The Super is a little bit better than the other two in this regard, at least on the index finger, but tapping with the tip was still reliable only about half the time.

Mujjo’s Single Layer Touchscreen Gloves look okay, but a magnetic clasp at the wrist leaves a patch of skin exposed, letting cold air in. We also made more typing mistakes with these gloves than with our top picks.

Mujjo’s Double Layered Touchscreen Gloves are the thicker version of the company’s single-layer gloves. While we expected to like them based on their simplicity and promise of greater warmth, we found them uncomfortably constricting.

Mujjo’s Leather Touchscreen Gloves look great—as they should for their $100-plus price tag. But because they’re leather, they offer little give, so if they don’t fit your hand perfectly, they won’t be great for typing. One of our testers also really disliked the magnetic wrist closure, which he found difficult to manipulate.

Outdoor Research’s Sensor Gloves are another pair of leather gloves that work great as gloves but don’t offer enough dexterity to be great touchscreen gloves. They won an Editor’s Choice Award from Backpacker in 2011, and they look badass, feel comfortable, and have good build quality. But I found that the stitching in the ends of the fingers and thumbs often left me touching parts of the screen that I hadn’t intended—not by a lot, but by just enough that typing became frustrating, and gaming wasn’t as much fun as it should be. That problem and the price tag were dealbreakers.

The North Face Apex+ Etip gloves were a solid-looking contender for a soft-shell glove. Unfortunately, the soft-shell fabric is a bit too stiff and loosely cut for most fingertips to get a snug fit. The conductivity is great, and the gloves are warm, windproof, and quite water-resistant. That makes them a great pick for biking in the rain, since in that case you’ll probably value wind-blocking and water resistance more than having the best touchscreen dexterity. But they’re just not as precise as a person would need them to be for most uses—they’re suitable only for performing very simple tasks (taking a photo or answering a call, for instance) in gnarly conditions.

The North Face Denali Etip gloves, another fleece pair we tested, were neither as warm nor as snug-fitting as the company’s ThermoBall Etip gloves. The fingertips were boxy and loose, which made precise typing almost impossible. This style still had the same great conductivity, but we didn’t see a reason to give it a recommendation in our previous guide over its counterpart.

Glove.ly’s Cozy and Classic designs were similar in most respects to their Glider Gloves counterparts, except that they lacked any sort of grip on the palm or fingers. The company says that adding grip looks too “techy,” but the inner palms and fingers typically aren’t that visible to outside observers, so we don’t really buy that argument. Also, we’d take techy-looking glove palms over a dropped phone any day of the week.

Burton’s Touch N Go gloves are a decent soft-shell option, but the fit wasn’t at all what I had hoped for: They had all the inaccuracy of a glove with loose-fitting seams. Although the conductivity was fine, accuracy was poor enough to make texting frustrating. I also wasn’t fond of the large logo on the back of the hand. Worse yet, the rubber grip dots on the palm began falling off during the first day of use.

Burton’s newer Tech Gloves are a decent soft-shell choice with a conductive leather palm, thumb, and inner fingers. The design also has conductive leather on the tip and sides of only the thumb and index finger; this means that using your fingertip is possible with only those two digits. On top of that, the thick, soft-shell material and leather make using these gloves imprecise.

We had high hopes for the soft-shell 180s Skyline GLV gloves, but they let us down due to a design flaw in the placement of the conductive synthetic materials on the inside of the fingers, thumb, and palm. The sides and tips of each finger are sewn from nonconductive material, so you can tap a touchscreen with only the pad of your finger, not the tip. It made me feel like someone with really long nails trying to push a button.

The ISGlove mittens try but ultimately fail to be a best-of-all-worlds option for people looking for warmth, weather protection, and touchscreen compatibility. These gloves are basically knit conductive gloves with bulkier, Thinsulate-lined mittens built around them that you can unbutton to reveal the conductive thumbs and fingertips—two gloves in one. And that raises the question: Why not just wear two gloves and remove the shell when you need to type? The price is too high for a mediocre pair of ski mitts with a conductive liner considering the fact that the Glider Gloves styles (either Winter or Urban) are thin enough to use as liners under your favorite pair of waterproof, insulated mittens or gloves.

The Agloves Sport gloves are liner-style knit conductive gloves that just don’t compare to the Moshi Digits styles in warmth or quality.

Nick Guy is the accessories writer for The Wirecutter, and covers barware and drinking accessories for The Sweethome. He previously served as accessories editor at iLounge, and wrote about cocktails for Serious Eats. His work has appeared on TIME.com, Fast Company, and Tested.com.

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